Andrew Kern

Andrew Kern is the founder and president of the CiRCE Institute (Center for Independent Research on Classical Education), the husband of Karen, the father of five grown adults, and the grandfather of (so far) nine grandchildren. He has been researching, speaking, teaching, and consulting in the Christian classical renewal since 1993, during which he has been instrumental in the founding of three schools, consulted with over 100 schools and co-ops, and served as Director of Classical Instruction, Academic Dean, and Headmaster. Andrew speaks regularly at home school and classical conferences. In addition, he is the co-author with Dr. Gene Edward Veith of Classical Education, The Movement Sweeping America and, with Andrea Lipinski, of The CiRCE Guide to Reading. He also led the development of CiRCE’s classical rhetoric program, The Lost Tools of Writing, and he loves Homer, Shakespeare, Anne of Green Gables, and Endeavour. Like Shakespeare, he knows a little Latin and less Greek. Except a lot less than Shakespeare. Andrew and Karen have settled in Concord, North Carolina, where they attend Christ The Good Shepherd Orthodox Mission and watch their five grown children raise their children and pursue their callings.
Taking the Stress out of Semester Tests

Taking the Stress out of Semester Tests

Originally published in Classis Volume XXVII, No. I7 “Cramming works fine in a pinch. It just doesn’t last. Spacing does.” Benedict Carey, How We Learn For readers of John Milton Gregory’s The Seven Laws of Teaching, the idea that students need frequent and consistent...

Credulitas

Credulitas

Originally Published In Classis Volume XXXII, Issue 1 On any given day of the school year, one might walk into the average classroom of an Humanities course situated in the Rhetoric school and find students gathered around a text. Surely, there would be a teacher...

The Glory of Mimetic Teaching

The Glory of Mimetic Teaching

The Glory of Mimetic Teaching   August 5, 2022 Written By: Andrew Kern Originally published in ClassisSpring 2025, Volume XXXII Issue 2It is the business of education to wait upon Pentecost. Unhappily, there is something about educational syllabuses, and especially...

The Grammar of My Morning Coffee

The Grammar of My Morning Coffee

If you have spent any time in classical education circles over the past few decades, you will have encountered Dorothy Sayers. Her essay, “The Lost Tools of Learning,” holds a canonical position in renewal of classical Christian education. Sayers directed us to look...

Common Objects of Love

Common Objects of Love

Survey a number of parents on the most important aspect of a school, and the majority will say “community.” Community is a fashionable word. Everyone talks about building community, being in community, or doing life together. Because man is a political animal, this is...

Using Euclid to Teach Geometry

Using Euclid to Teach Geometry

First published in Classis Volume XVIII, No. 2 Much has been written in the classical Christian school movement about the Great Books, the use of original sources, and the importance of Latin and Greek, but where does mathematics fit in? A study of Euclid's Elements,...

Lessons John Amos Comenius Can Teach

Lessons John Amos Comenius Can Teach

Originally published in Classis Volume XX, No. 2 John Amos Comenius has long been considered a forgotten hero of the Reformation era. Yet we, as classical Christian educators, have more to learn from Comenius than anyone else, for he is one of us. Comenius was above...